Surfing and murder come together in this dazzling debut mystery series featuring San Diego private investigator Noah Braddock.
"Marilyn Crier peered in the window, and I knew the past was about to kick me in the ass."
When Marilyn Crier calls surfer-cum-private investigator Noah Braddock, she doesn’t mention that she hasn’t seen him in more than a decade or that she’d despised him when he dated her daughter, Kate, in high school. She does, however, mention that Kate is missing and she wants Noah to find her. . . .
And so begins Killer Swell, the first book in a new mystery series featuring private investigator/surfer Noah Braddock. Author Jeff Shelby knows the surfing world and how to create a wonderfully authentic, vividly alive sense of place. Most of all, he knows how to create a memorable new hero: a man who is sometimes brash, often funny, always strong, and honorable.
With Killer Swell, Shelby carves out a place for himself next to the likes of Randy Wayne White, T. Jefferson Parker, and Carl Hiaasen. Crisp writing, rich details, and an amazing main character make Killer Swell a truly thrilling debut.
Noah Braddock is just living from wave to wave, catching a nice break from his private eye business. So when Peter Pluto asks Noah to look for his missing younger brother, Linc, Noah takes the case reluctantly-and quickly finds out that Linc is not your average undergrad.
Aided by his friend Carter and a beautiful Rastafarian coed, Noah discovers that Linc stole some money from a white supremacist group. The skinheads will stop at nothing to find Linc-and when Noah wakes up at the bottom of a canyon, beaten and bruised, with a corpse lying next to him, he realizes he's next on their list...and in for the ride of his life.
Private eye Noah Braddock has finally found peace in his once tumultuous relationship with Detective Liz Santangelo and has called a tentative truce with his alcoholic mother, Carolina. So when lawyer Darcy Gill demands that he look into a hopeless death row case, he's more interested in catching some waves before San Diego's rare winter weather takes hold. Then Darcy plays her trump card: the man scheduled to die—convicted of killing two men in cold blood—is the father Noah never knew.
Noah Braddock is reeling.
Forced to leave San Diego after his life is destroyed by tragedy, Noah is hiding and trying to heal on the Florida Panhandle. Paralyzed by fear and the pain of loss, he’s isolated himself and given up everything that meant anything to him. When a young boy comes to him on the beach, unable to find his mother, Noah is pulled into both of their troubled lives. As he reluctantly works to protect them from local thugs, he must confront the memories that continue to haunt him. Those memories come to life when shadowy figures from his past show up in Florida. While he grapples with this, a new threat emerges that will forever change the lives of the boy and his mother and compels Noah to make a choice - keep running or face the consequences of his shattered life.
Picking up where the critically acclaimed Liquid Smoke left off, Drift Away exposes a new Braddock – introspective, lost, confused…but not yet broken.